In their talk at our product management conference Mind the Product 2012 Matt and Hannah argue that MacGuffins can be incredibly useful tools when designing a product. A MacGuffin is a story telling object which serves as a trigger for the plot, most famously the Maltese Falcon in the eponymous book and films or the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. A product MacGuffin would build on this and could serve as a trope in an online product which serves merely as a trigger for the user experience, often evoking a real-world experience we’re already familiar with.